‘Buy America’ passes hurdles, but government MPs aren’t worried yet

Despite having passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate, there’s little reason to fear a U.S. bill containing the latest round of “Buy America” provisions will be enacted into law, say two Conservative MPs.

The bill, named The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, is now at a “conference” stage where both houses must work out their differences and vote on them before sending the bill to the president to be signed or vetoed.

According to Conservative MP and congressional liaison Rob Merrifield, who was recently in Washington meeting with many members of congress, his American counterparts aren’t too sure that will happen.

“A lot of people are skeptical and are thinking the transportation bill is dead in the water and it won’t come forward. There won’t be enough compromise to make it happen,” he told iPolitics.

Though its potential failure would likely be as a result of other issues related to the bill, Merrifield said members of the conference committee are well aware of Canadian concerns.

“We spoke to a number of members who sit on that committee and voiced our aggressive concerns about the Buy America clauses in that. Everyone we talked to had agreed that yes, this is not appropriate wording,” he said.

The specific Buy America provisions under discussion came from Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, who aimed them at foreign competition that undermines American iron and steel manufacturers and which therefore shouldn’t be used for government-funded infrastructure projects.

By foreign competition, he clarified, he meant “countries like China, Russia, and Brazil” — in other words the BRICs.

But that didn’t mean Canada got an exemption.

“The language is not there for Canada, and yet Canada is the largest trading partner so we get swept into it,” Merrifield explained.

Conservative MP Rick Dykstra, who spent last weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C., meeting with the governors of southern states as part of the fifth annual meeting Southeastern United States-Canadian Provinces Alliance (SEUS-CP), said he didn’t think much of the South was on board.

As for Senator Brown, “His perspective on this is a little more parochial than some of the governors I spoke to over the weekend.”

“They see the benefits in terms of their relationship with Canada, and to be quite honest, they also see the benefits with China,” he added.

When it came to putting odds on the likelihood of the bill passing, however, Merrifield remained cautions.